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La Ciudad Perdida (and Santa Marta)
Published: January 19th 2013South America » Colombia » Santa Marta » Ciudad Perdida
January 10th 2013
Obviously, before leaving Colombia I had to do something epic. Apart from one week in Semana Santa, I had only had long weekends to tour aroudn the country, so I deliberately finished all my commitments 2 weeks before my departure date, and decided that I wasn't going to leave the country with even one peso left - which is exactly what happened! Even before I went to Colombia, I knew that the main thing I wanted to do was to go on the 5 day hike to reach the Colombian Machu Pichu, an ancient Tayronan city descovered only in the 1970s and only accessible still by foot. I flew to Santa Marta, and from there met the guide who I had booked. At least that was the plan. In reality, obviously, Avianca (national airline) had lost ... read more
November 27th 2012
On my last full weekend in Bogotá, a few of us were invited to a friend's family finca about an hour and a hlaf outside the city in a tiny village called Caqueza. 7 of us went in total, and my friend's full extended family was also there it seemed! It was a really beautiful place in the mountains and with amazing sunshine. We arrived on the Saturday afternoon and spent a few hours sorting out our tents (the finca was full!) and having a few beers/aguardiente with the family outside outside of the finca, salsa blasting, into the early evening. Then us lot went into the local town to have a bit of a party before coming back and carrying on the party around the campfire. The next day we set off to climb a ... read more
November 27th 2012
With only a few weeks left in Colombia, I really wanted to visit San Gil which is billed as the extreme sports capital of Colombia. About an 8 hour drive outside of Bogotá, four of us went in the car on Friday night and had the Saturday, Sunday and most of Monday there as it was a bank holiday weekend (again!). San Gil itself was amazing, a really beautiftul colonial town up in the mountains with blue skies and lots of sun. Perfect for chilling out in the late afternoons and evenings after the day's activities, especially as we had a nice outdoor jacuzi in the hostel bar! The first day we were a little tired from the journey and decided to save the weekend's main activity, white water rafting, for Sunday. The guys in the ... read more
September 11th 2012
Here are a few photos which I took over the weekend. I went for a little hiking in Parque Nacional Chingaza with some friends, it was beautiful!... read more
August 8th 2012
Last weekend was the last long weekend for a while, and since we hadn't been travelling for a while 5 of us decided to go to Medellin. This is one of the three big cities in Colombia, and is a popular tourist destination. Ask any Colombian what they think of the place, and despite regional loyalties almost all of them will tell you two things: 1) it is the city of La Primevera Eterna (eternal spring), and 2) the most beautiful women in Colombia - the paisas - are from Medellin. What a terribe place it sounds! The city is also most famous for being the home city of Pablo Escobar and his cartel, and having benefitted a lot from his robin-hood propaganda campaign of 'gifting' huge sums of money to his home city. Having now ... read more
June 22nd 2012
Last weekend (yet another bank holiday weekend, or puente), was one of my mate's birthdays so to celebrate a group of us went together to the Tatacoa Desert, about 8 hours by bus south of Bogotá. Having had some unexpected delays on the way there, we ended up having to spend Saturday night in a small town called Aipe. This was a very typical town, well off the beaten trail (as is the desert itself) and having wondered around for a few hours desperately seeking a hotel we finally got ourselves settled and had a brilliant night dancing salsa with all the locals, and drinking the local aguardiente. The next day, off we went on foot ith our tents and all our kit, searching for a river which we knew we had to cross. The scenery ... read more
May 23rd 2012
Last weekend was a 'puente', which is basically one of many long weekends here as everybody was given the Monday off work. A group of 8 of us rented a finca, which is a basic villa outside of the city and is something many Bogotáns have for weekend retreats, especially as land in the countryside here is cheap. It was in a place called Guatavita, which is a large lake in the mountains about an hour and a half outside of the city. It was pretty stunning as you can see below, and is unbelievably similar to somewhere like Lake Windermere. The finca itself was a very basic, with only just electricity to have light, but definitely no TV or computers! We were in an extremely remote area, surrounded by nothing but fields and the occasional ... read more
May 23rd 2012
Some photos of another weekend day-trip to the mountains, this time around a village about one hour to the east of Bogotá. I managed to convince a few others to come with this time, which is a good thing seeing as James (who came with me last time) is out of action for the foreseeable future having had surgery to fix a twisted knee! The weather wasn't as good as last time, I think we were still a little close to Bogotá so got largely the same weather. However, it was a beautiful place for sure and we followed a narrow path through over-grown semi-jungle to get to some pretty spectacular waterfalls. Along the way we got some great fews of the sheer cliff face opposite us appearing and disappearing in seconds as the mist came ... read more
May 11th 2012
So I've finally got some photos to post of general living in Bogotá, to give you a flavour of what day-to-day life is like here. Sorry its taken so long...foreigners walking around with their cameras out are generally asking for trouble so its taken until now for me to feel a little more savvy than the standard tourist and to feel comfortable taking photos! Anyway, I'm living in a barrio called the Candelaria which is the oldest and most traditional part of the city, and despite being part of the city centre is actually right on the east edge, pressed up against the mountains. Since being founded, the city has expanded mainly to the north and south and a little to the west, but is obviously hemmed in by the mountains to the edge, so the ... read more
April 22nd 2012
I'm sorry its taken me so long to get these photos up, I had to collect them from several different people which took a little time! Colombia being a very Catholic country, Semana Santa (Easter week) was basically a week off work for everyone, so I took the opportunity to get my first experience of travelling around Bogotá, and headed into the famous Colombian mountains. La Sierra Nevada ('Snowy Range') is a mountain range in the North of the country, its a part of the Andes but its disconnected from the rest of that range. Its in two main parts, la Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta further north, and the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy which is closer to Bogotá. Both areas are highly recommended to hikers as some of the best mountain scenery in South America. ... read more
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